For this Wednesday I have something a little different to offer that I'm pretty excited about...
Happy Tooth and Dug is a band from Columbus, Ohio that I recently became aware of, although fans of Lucas Dix may know Dug from his feature on the new album by Dix's R4PC4MP incarnation. All together they are a live instrumental hip hop group featuring the two emcees Happy Tooth and Dug, Ryan Liptak, a talented singer and musician, Eric Dixon on lead guitar, and a rhythm section handled by Phil Effingham and Corey Blaies who help to round out the overall sound of the band. I feel it's important to acknowledge every member of this outfit in particular, because it's clear from listening that each element of Happy Tooth and Dug is as crucial as the rest, and without them the novel brand of indie rap they produce couldn't exist. The live band format can sometimes be a gimmick, I've heard groups that really could have done the same music with a DJ. Happy Tooth and Dug is different, their sound is entirely guitar driven and melodic, with elements of progressive rock and indie rock ever present.
They also have a high energy live performance that looks to provide a very interesting experience for the jaded hip hop consumer. The video below really serves to highlight the way they bend genres, work together, and really put themselves into producing a highly unique and engaging sound. This is live footage of "The Last Song", which is featured on the EP All in Your Head, coming September 30th and reviewed today:
So, to get to it, my first impression of All in Your Head is that this humble little EP has serious power. While short, every song makes an impression, and the honesty and raw emotion make me confident that this could be something everyone could find a bit of themselves in. This is a group with confidence and integrity, and the music comes through with both. Listeners are not short changed here.
From the opening track "La Fin", both emcees show off their versatility, trading sing song rhymes over intricate arpeggios from lead guitarist Eric Dixon. The beats are often very unusual for hip hop and they give Happy Tooth and Dug the opportunity to drop meaningful lyrics slowly or rapidly while showing a bit of style and ingenuity. Ryan Liptak's choruses perfect each track, and the melodic sections often go in very interesting directions, reminding me a bit of songs by Ceschi (<3) or production by Sapient. Nothing here is too familiar, but it all fits perfectly.
Speaking of the above artists, I feel like anyone who finds the music of Fake Four amazing owes it to themselves to check into Happy Tooth and Dug. While this collaborative effort (the two emcees actually have worked together under the name Dug and Happy Tooth, check out their music here) is a fairly new venture for the rappers, Happy Tooth and Dug are sounding really solid. They manage to blend rock and rap in such a way that the final product doesn't entirely sound like either one. It's just good, catchy, honest music and I personally am glad I got the chance to hear it.
All in Your Head will be available Monday, September 30th here (while you wait check out the bands first album, up for download or physical CD purchase now!) for download, and up for free streaming on your favorite service as well.
Phew, now that that's out of the way, I wanted to offer something cool. I got the chance to ask these guys questions through the magic of email, and the end result is below. Enjoy!
A Cup of Digital Coffee with the Band Happy Tooth & Dug
First off I'd like to say what a pleasure it's been interacting with Happy Tooth. It's always exciting for me to get to correspond with any artist, and to find out that these guys are familiar with UGF and willing to do an interview is pretty f*cking dope to me. It was a bonus that he turned out to be so friendly and personable. So close your eyes and imagine a coffee shop in the snowy (it's December in this scenario I guess, whatever) Midwest, and here's me having some metaphorical coffee with the band (see above for the group photo)!
Dimxsk: So how did you guys start rapping and making music, and how long have you been at it?
Happy Tooth: Dug, Ryan Liptak, and I (Happy Tooth) were all friends / acquaintances through school and the local skate scene. Dug and I had been writing since we were kids, but we moved into a party house around 2008 or 2009 when we were 18 and we started freestyling at all the parties and eventually that lead to some bad demo songs with another friend of ours and me self-producing my first two projects. My first "official" release was 2012 but we had been dabbling since 2010 or so with writing songs / recording so I'd say about 10 years, but some of the members of the band have been playing longer than that on their own.
Dimxsk: Sounds like a lot of fun and some craziness! What's the background on the collaboration? You guys knew each other growing up, how did you get together as a musical entity?
Happy Tooth: I saw Ryan around 2011 at one of my brother's parties (he had become a sound engineer at that point) and I showed him a few of my songs and he suggested we make a song together. That song ended up being the track, "Last Words" off of the band's first record, W.H.Y.G.O.D.W.H.Y.. Ryan enjoyed working with me enough to want to do another song and I suggested it be with my friend Dug and then we worked on the songs, "Exhaust Pipe Dreams" and "Smoke, Steam, Dust." The chemistry was great, and Ryan wrote some of the best music he had ever written and wanted to pursue a whole record. It took almost two years to finish and during that time we recruited our friends, Eric Dixon, Phil Effingham, and Corey Blaies to help envision the rest of the record and start playing gigs. We all knew each other from different things but we definitely entered the local music scene together.
Dimxsk: The sound is definitely something special, it's interesting to find out how much influence Ryan had in the creation of that sound. Speaking of, what kind of music / specific artists did you grow up listening to, and who do you think was influential in forming that sound?
Happy Tooth: Dug and I got super into underground hip-hop around the same time but I had been listening to Atmosphere and other underground rappers from skate videos since I was 12 or 13. When we were living together we discovered all the other Rhymesayers affiliates, Eyedea & Abilities, Brother Ali, Grieves, Doomtree Crew, Kristoff Krane, Cage, Ceschi, Astronautalis, Ecid, Themselves, Chip tha Ripper, The Grouch & Eligh, Kid Cudi, Kill The Vultures, Sadistik, Sage Francis, B. Dolan, Scroobius Pip and tons of others. Those are just some of the hip hop influences but we also listened to every other genre too. I'm a huge fan of Jeff Rosenstock, The Smith Street Band, Tom Waits, AJJ, Gregory Pepper & His Problems, Pat the Bunny and I could just go on. And everyone in the band has lots of different influences, this was just some of Dug and I's early ones / some of mine. We were underground fans way before we started making records though definitely.
Dimxsk: I can definitely hear that in this record, it reflects musicians who've put the time in to study those that came before. Who do you like out there now? What do you like about them?
Happy Tooth: Why? has always been a big influence on all of us. They're just getting better with each release forever, same with Atmosphere and several of the people I mentioned in the last answer. But we all have such different influences in and out of hip hop its hard to pick just a few. We like artists like us that are harder to pin down and that don't stick to one style or genre. Ceschi, Astronautalis, Kristoff Krane, and Yoni Wolf are all good examples of that.
Dimxsk: I actually really enjoyed that about this record, I remember listening to Oaklandazulasylum as a teenager and realizing for the first time that things like rock and rap could be melded into something new, without the gimmicky commercial insincerity of nu metal. I hear that same type of amalgamation in All in Your Head. What is that writing process like? I see that you've all done various projects together, what is it like writing hip hop with such a large outfit? How is working with a live band different than rapping solo, or bedroom recordings or whatever?
Happy Tooth: Our process differs depending on the song / project. But for this particular new EP, Phil wrote all the main guitar riffs in each and then we all added different things at different points and the songs evolved as we played them together and became familiar with them. Sometimes we will write lyrics first and base the song around them, or the song comes first and lyrics second but we've had this process also be simultaneous. There are certain things you can only work out in a live setting with everyone all at once though, and that's why these songs were live tracked altogether because that's how they came to be fully formed. It takes a lot longer for a band project than solo just because it's not one or two people, but six different people that all have to agree on the same thing. Performing solo and with the band both have pros and cons, but traveling is easier solo because it's less equipment. But the energy level you can tap into with a full band in a live setting is something much more intense. You can definitely get wild with a solo set but when it's a group of people all playing as hard as they can collectively you can feel that higher level of energy from start to finish.
Dimxsk: I wanted to say I saw that video above of you guys performing "The Last Song" live and thought it looked like a killer show. Speaking of, what artists have you worked with or toured with? Anyone who's been particularly supportive of your music you'd like to give props to?
Happy Tooth: We have brought different artists to Columbus a bunch and we've played shows with Ecid, Farout, Eyenine, Ceschi, Carnage the Executioner, Bleubird, SEEALLHUES, Milo, Tyler Cassidy, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Blake Ambrose, Fat Tony, and The Garden
We've collabed with a ton of local / regional artists as well like: The Devil Doves, Damn The Witch Siren, Xzela, Eugenius, Juan Cosby, and Bum Theory. We have been very fortunate to have a lot of support from people we love but out of everyone it's definitely Eyenine and Farout, or all the Cinci friends we've made. They have said nothing but good things and we've played a lot of great shows together.
Dimxsk: Anyone you haven't yet worked with that you'd like to?
Happy Tooth: Well we would work with any of the artists we have mentioned so far of course but it would be cool to get an Astronautalis feature some day for sure.
Dimxsk: That would be wild no doubt, he's actually one of my favorites. Pomegranate was absolutely flawless. I've always wanted to ask a touring band this next question, what's the most interesting thing that's ever happened at a Happy Tooth & Dug show?
Happy Tooth: When we had Ceschi here a few years ago and we were on stage doing the last movement of the last song in our set and someone got shot outside of the venue. Then the shooter ran through the venue I guess and they got up and stopped us mid song and locked the place down for a minute til the cops got there but it was an intense experience that changed the vibe instantly. At the same venue for the Milo show Phil got hit with Ryan's guitar and it bashed his head open and he finished the set bleeding everywhere and that was pretty wild too, there's a video of that one somewhere.
Dimxsk: Nice! So "All in Your Head" is coming out September 30th. I talk a little bit about the EP above, but what would you like our readers to know about this particular collection of music? Any songs with hidden meanings you'd like to reveal?
Happy Tooth: These songs are an intimate look into very personal things but also very broad concepts as well. Some of these lyrics are as painfully honest as they could be. But I (Happy Tooth) guess I could sum up how I interpret each one personally since there are only five tracks.
*La Fin is about cycles and how life and all things operate on a loop, in the way death/nature reset the environment suddenly and unpredictably. In that same way the cycle becomes subjective and the ending just signifies the beginning of the next cycle, so we always start at the end. It's also a nod to our last song on the first record being called "To Be Continued."
*Always A Threat is about catastrophizing and anxiety's crushing effects in general.
*Good For You is about capitalism's effect on the healthcare system.
*Never (Give Up) is about the struggle of giving into the fact we can't control anything and the best we can do is to follow what feels right or fated, and leave something behind that represents us to somehow try and compensate.
*The Last Song is a rerelease of an old Happy Tooth solo song Phil and I wrote, it's generally about having an existential crisis and not being able to escape the feeling of being an imposter after a life dedicated to an artform that largely just creates a warped/distorted tragic character version of oneself and embracing that identity regardless.
Dimxsk: Thanks for that! It's always welcome to have an official understanding of some of the music I get to listen to. Anyway, this last question is from the living legend Trylemma. Since we focus on out of print releases at UGF, what is the one album you've always wanted but haven't been able to find?
Happy Tooth: We would definitely want to find Wu-Tang's, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. But there's only one copy and it's seized by a federal court at the moment apparently.
Dimxsk: Absolutely awesome answer, if my ninja caper* works out I'll hook you up with a rip for sure! Thanks again for taking the time to "stop by for coffee", I'll be keeping an eye on you guys from now on and hopefully can catch a show if you make it out West.
Anyway that's it, for those of you who've taken the time to read this far I / we appreciate it, and hope you can spare another 3 minutes to check out the dope music video for "Always a Threat" that just came out, and will pick up the EP on 9/30/19. See you Friday!
Dimxsk: So how did you guys start rapping and making music, and how long have you been at it?
Happy Tooth: Dug, Ryan Liptak, and I (Happy Tooth) were all friends / acquaintances through school and the local skate scene. Dug and I had been writing since we were kids, but we moved into a party house around 2008 or 2009 when we were 18 and we started freestyling at all the parties and eventually that lead to some bad demo songs with another friend of ours and me self-producing my first two projects. My first "official" release was 2012 but we had been dabbling since 2010 or so with writing songs / recording so I'd say about 10 years, but some of the members of the band have been playing longer than that on their own.
Dimxsk: Sounds like a lot of fun and some craziness! What's the background on the collaboration? You guys knew each other growing up, how did you get together as a musical entity?
Happy Tooth: I saw Ryan around 2011 at one of my brother's parties (he had become a sound engineer at that point) and I showed him a few of my songs and he suggested we make a song together. That song ended up being the track, "Last Words" off of the band's first record, W.H.Y.G.O.D.W.H.Y.. Ryan enjoyed working with me enough to want to do another song and I suggested it be with my friend Dug and then we worked on the songs, "Exhaust Pipe Dreams" and "Smoke, Steam, Dust." The chemistry was great, and Ryan wrote some of the best music he had ever written and wanted to pursue a whole record. It took almost two years to finish and during that time we recruited our friends, Eric Dixon, Phil Effingham, and Corey Blaies to help envision the rest of the record and start playing gigs. We all knew each other from different things but we definitely entered the local music scene together.
Dimxsk: The sound is definitely something special, it's interesting to find out how much influence Ryan had in the creation of that sound. Speaking of, what kind of music / specific artists did you grow up listening to, and who do you think was influential in forming that sound?
Happy Tooth: Dug and I got super into underground hip-hop around the same time but I had been listening to Atmosphere and other underground rappers from skate videos since I was 12 or 13. When we were living together we discovered all the other Rhymesayers affiliates, Eyedea & Abilities, Brother Ali, Grieves, Doomtree Crew, Kristoff Krane, Cage, Ceschi, Astronautalis, Ecid, Themselves, Chip tha Ripper, The Grouch & Eligh, Kid Cudi, Kill The Vultures, Sadistik, Sage Francis, B. Dolan, Scroobius Pip and tons of others. Those are just some of the hip hop influences but we also listened to every other genre too. I'm a huge fan of Jeff Rosenstock, The Smith Street Band, Tom Waits, AJJ, Gregory Pepper & His Problems, Pat the Bunny and I could just go on. And everyone in the band has lots of different influences, this was just some of Dug and I's early ones / some of mine. We were underground fans way before we started making records though definitely.
Dimxsk: I can definitely hear that in this record, it reflects musicians who've put the time in to study those that came before. Who do you like out there now? What do you like about them?
Happy Tooth: Why? has always been a big influence on all of us. They're just getting better with each release forever, same with Atmosphere and several of the people I mentioned in the last answer. But we all have such different influences in and out of hip hop its hard to pick just a few. We like artists like us that are harder to pin down and that don't stick to one style or genre. Ceschi, Astronautalis, Kristoff Krane, and Yoni Wolf are all good examples of that.
Dimxsk: I actually really enjoyed that about this record, I remember listening to Oaklandazulasylum as a teenager and realizing for the first time that things like rock and rap could be melded into something new, without the gimmicky commercial insincerity of nu metal. I hear that same type of amalgamation in All in Your Head. What is that writing process like? I see that you've all done various projects together, what is it like writing hip hop with such a large outfit? How is working with a live band different than rapping solo, or bedroom recordings or whatever?
Happy Tooth: Our process differs depending on the song / project. But for this particular new EP, Phil wrote all the main guitar riffs in each and then we all added different things at different points and the songs evolved as we played them together and became familiar with them. Sometimes we will write lyrics first and base the song around them, or the song comes first and lyrics second but we've had this process also be simultaneous. There are certain things you can only work out in a live setting with everyone all at once though, and that's why these songs were live tracked altogether because that's how they came to be fully formed. It takes a lot longer for a band project than solo just because it's not one or two people, but six different people that all have to agree on the same thing. Performing solo and with the band both have pros and cons, but traveling is easier solo because it's less equipment. But the energy level you can tap into with a full band in a live setting is something much more intense. You can definitely get wild with a solo set but when it's a group of people all playing as hard as they can collectively you can feel that higher level of energy from start to finish.
Dimxsk: I wanted to say I saw that video above of you guys performing "The Last Song" live and thought it looked like a killer show. Speaking of, what artists have you worked with or toured with? Anyone who's been particularly supportive of your music you'd like to give props to?
Happy Tooth: We have brought different artists to Columbus a bunch and we've played shows with Ecid, Farout, Eyenine, Ceschi, Carnage the Executioner, Bleubird, SEEALLHUES, Milo, Tyler Cassidy, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Blake Ambrose, Fat Tony, and The Garden
We've collabed with a ton of local / regional artists as well like: The Devil Doves, Damn The Witch Siren, Xzela, Eugenius, Juan Cosby, and Bum Theory. We have been very fortunate to have a lot of support from people we love but out of everyone it's definitely Eyenine and Farout, or all the Cinci friends we've made. They have said nothing but good things and we've played a lot of great shows together.
Dimxsk: Anyone you haven't yet worked with that you'd like to?
Happy Tooth: Well we would work with any of the artists we have mentioned so far of course but it would be cool to get an Astronautalis feature some day for sure.
Dimxsk: That would be wild no doubt, he's actually one of my favorites. Pomegranate was absolutely flawless. I've always wanted to ask a touring band this next question, what's the most interesting thing that's ever happened at a Happy Tooth & Dug show?
Happy Tooth: When we had Ceschi here a few years ago and we were on stage doing the last movement of the last song in our set and someone got shot outside of the venue. Then the shooter ran through the venue I guess and they got up and stopped us mid song and locked the place down for a minute til the cops got there but it was an intense experience that changed the vibe instantly. At the same venue for the Milo show Phil got hit with Ryan's guitar and it bashed his head open and he finished the set bleeding everywhere and that was pretty wild too, there's a video of that one somewhere.
Dimxsk: Nice! So "All in Your Head" is coming out September 30th. I talk a little bit about the EP above, but what would you like our readers to know about this particular collection of music? Any songs with hidden meanings you'd like to reveal?
Happy Tooth: These songs are an intimate look into very personal things but also very broad concepts as well. Some of these lyrics are as painfully honest as they could be. But I (Happy Tooth) guess I could sum up how I interpret each one personally since there are only five tracks.
*La Fin is about cycles and how life and all things operate on a loop, in the way death/nature reset the environment suddenly and unpredictably. In that same way the cycle becomes subjective and the ending just signifies the beginning of the next cycle, so we always start at the end. It's also a nod to our last song on the first record being called "To Be Continued."
*Always A Threat is about catastrophizing and anxiety's crushing effects in general.
*Good For You is about capitalism's effect on the healthcare system.
*Never (Give Up) is about the struggle of giving into the fact we can't control anything and the best we can do is to follow what feels right or fated, and leave something behind that represents us to somehow try and compensate.
*The Last Song is a rerelease of an old Happy Tooth solo song Phil and I wrote, it's generally about having an existential crisis and not being able to escape the feeling of being an imposter after a life dedicated to an artform that largely just creates a warped/distorted tragic character version of oneself and embracing that identity regardless.
Dimxsk: Thanks for that! It's always welcome to have an official understanding of some of the music I get to listen to. Anyway, this last question is from the living legend Trylemma. Since we focus on out of print releases at UGF, what is the one album you've always wanted but haven't been able to find?
Happy Tooth: We would definitely want to find Wu-Tang's, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. But there's only one copy and it's seized by a federal court at the moment apparently.
Dimxsk: Absolutely awesome answer, if my ninja caper* works out I'll hook you up with a rip for sure! Thanks again for taking the time to "stop by for coffee", I'll be keeping an eye on you guys from now on and hopefully can catch a show if you make it out West.
Anyway that's it, for those of you who've taken the time to read this far I / we appreciate it, and hope you can spare another 3 minutes to check out the dope music video for "Always a Threat" that just came out, and will pick up the EP on 9/30/19. See you Friday!
*There is no ninja caper planned, UGF condones no illegal activity.
You shoulda caught the secret basement show at the Kitty House last Friday nite...as a veteran of many,many live shows I saw a band that was pumped to play new music...and what energy that brings! I anxiously await the drop of the ep.
ReplyDeleteI bet that would be fantastic. The EP is very nice man you'll be happy!
DeleteLove this. These guys are worth the listen and if you're in the area worth seeing live!
ReplyDelete